Donaldson Crew Adventures

Every year in January - a group of us try to get permits on different rivers through an established 'lottery system".  We pick a couple rivers, and a bunch of us try to draw.  Submissions are due Jan 31, and the draw happens by Feb 15.  We've had pretty good luck over the past few years.  Three years ago I drew on the Main Salmon river in Idaho.  Last summer the Lovejoys drew a permit on the Rogue, and this year in 2025, the starlings drew a permit on the Snake in Hells Canyon!  Unfortunately this year we would be without Hunter due to his new job and little vacation time but he will be back with us in future trips I am sure.  In his place Abbie's friend Addy came with us.

If you are wondering where Hells Canyon is - see this map.  It forms part of the border between Oregon and Idaho.   It is a dam controlled river that is known for big water.   The rapids are different - technical yes but because of big waves, lateral waves vs a tricky low water move. (we saw one flip while on this trip on a set of rapids we were scouting just before we went through).   

Our trip plan:

Our Put-in date was Monday June 30, so we decided to drive over on June 29th and camp at a camp group upriver about 10 miles above the dam.  (you cannot camp at the put-in which is right at the base of the dam).  We booked sites at Hells Canyon Park Campgroup.  It was perfect!  If you book - book the temp camp sites up on the grass.  (there are about 8 sites)

We would raft the approx. 30 mile stretch from Hells Canyon Dam to Pittsburg Landing.  We would take it slow and do the trip over 5 days with a layover day (which are always great fun).   Pullout would be July 4th for the long drive back home.  (hoping to catch some fireworks along the way in different towns!)

Day 1 - Bend Oregon to Hells Canyon Park (Drive)

Long drive but relatively uneventful.  We met up in Prineville to convoy.  We stopped for lunch in Baker city.  Weather was HOT.  Mid 90s after 6pm  guess that’s why it’s called Hells Canyon.  Refreshing swim in the water and fajitas for dinner.  Temps ended up being in the high 90s and over 100 a couple days until the last day.  

Abbie with the big cliff jump!

Night 1 dinner by Chris!  Kevin prepped a special desert from ‘fruit off the land’.

Day 3 - July 1 - Battle Creek to Saddle Creek (6 miles)

River day 2 - our night to cook for the group.  We did teriyaki bowls.  

Day 4 - July 2 - Layover at Saddle Creek

Fun layover day with swimming, hiking and group photos overlooking the river. Notice the ‘group charcuterie board’ we did at lunch.

Day 5 - July 3 - Saddle Creek to Dry Gulch (9 miles)

Day 6 - July 4 - Dry Gulch to Pittsburg Landing / Pullout (10 miles) + drive home

Hard rowing 10 miles through cold temps and pouring rain the the pullout.  After all the heat from the trip today was a real change for us  

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What else would I like to try for?

I think we have the skills now to handle the Middle fork of the Salmon.  Very hard to get a permit but the Selway would be amazing.  Both of these rivers are in Idaho.  This one might be more a guys trip but Mark has been pushing to packraft the Escalante in Utah as well.    

Our family along with two others have been trying to get a permit for the Rogue for 3 years through the lottery system.  This year we drew a permit and 17 of us across 3 family (Donaldson, Lovejoy, Starling) journeyed down the coveted Rogue Wild and Scenic for 5 nights and 6 days.  Normally the Rogue can be done in 3 nights/4 days but we wanted to travel a little slower and allow for a layover day during the trip and being that this was our first time - give us time to scout some of the more spicy rapids on this river.  

The Rogue river is located in southwestern Oregon.  (see map below).  The wild and scenic section is just northwest of Grants Pass and flows west towards the ocean.  On this map we put on just north of Galice (Almeda Campground and Boat Ramp) and took out at Foster Bar.  Our total float was 38.4 Miles.  

Day 1 - Almeda Boat Ramp to Lower Whiskey Creek Camp (Travel: 7 miles)

We got an early start to drive the 4 hours from Bend to the put in.  We got on the river late morning around 11:30am.  This day included the famous Rainie Falls (video below) of a raft going through the main drop.   We did what’s known as the fish ladder on river right)

Whiskey creek camp didn’t have a great unloading zone but the site itself was very nice and there was a beautiful creek flowing to the river just above camp.  Chris cooked his famous steaks with chimichurri sauce, potatoes and wedge salad. (You definitely don’t lose weight on our raft trips)  

The boys brought a rope on the trip and rigged up a small rope swing by the creek.  You can see Abbie and I playing at the creek entrance.  

With our rogue river trip coming up we wanted to get some more oar time.  There is a stretch on the Deschutes with some decent rapids around the Maupin area.  PJ came with me to keep company on my boat. 

3rd year doing a spring float with a Bible study group that Mark leads through the school year. The raft trip is the capstone before the summer break.  This year we did the lower section of the Deschutes from buck hollow all the way to the Columbia River (heritage landing). About 40 miles over the 3-day long weekend.  This includes a stretch that none of us have done prior.  

We had one mishap with Mark’s boat and he had to do a field repair on the outer shell.  Thankfully, it  did not puncture the bladder so able to leverage the repair for the remainder of the trip until he can do a more permanent fix. 

We just completed a super fun and leisurely 3 day raft trip on the lower Deschutes River, north of Bend putting in at Buckhollow (just outside of Maupin) and taking out at Mack’s Canyon.  It was only about 20 miles making for shorter days on the river and lots of fun at camp.   This trip was with the Lovejoy family as usual and the Starlings, (Chris, Hattie and their 3 girls) who we have known for years but never had the opportunity to boat together. 

We drove north to Maupin and we were on the river around 10:30 on Friday morning.

This was our second annual year end boys bible study raft trip.  My neighbor and friend Mark hosts a boys bible study weekly through the school year and the raft trip is the year end capstone.  

https://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/view/river-detail/1519/main

We actually put in about 4-5 miles upriver from the states start at tollgate campground as there was a place to park our rigs. This upper section of the river was narrow and filled with excitement.  It was actually our favorite segment of the entire trip. 

This made our trip approx 47 ish miles for the weekend putting in Friday at mid day and taking out Sunday at mid day.  Friday we did about 12.  Saturday was our long day at over 25 miles and then Sunday was about 10 miles to the take out in monument. 

The put in

Fun on the river

Our big raft trip for the year was a 7 day rafting trip floating over 80 miles on the main salmon river through the Idaho Frank church roadless wilderness in late August. To get a permit you need to submit a request into a lottery in January. This is a popular rafting river with about a 3% chance of drawing a permit. I got lucky and drew a permit so we planned to go with 2 other families and 17 people.  6 adults and 11 kids.

Here is the location of the river:

The total trip length was actually 10 days.  It took 2 days to get to the put-in on the eastern side of Idaho near Salmon Idaho and then a day back from the western side of Idaho near Riggins Idaho.  Our permit put-in day was Monday so we left our house about 6 am Saturday. 

Day 1

By late afternoon Saturday we were north of Stanley Idaho. There was a gold dredge and ghost town a few miles off the main road so we decided to check it out to take a break from driving.  It’s at an area called Yankee fork  

It was getting towards evening so we got back on the road and started looking for a camp site along the highway. We found a place around 7:30 just south of Challis Idaho and pulled in, and got dinner going.  

Day 2

Sunday we got going early and our goal was to get to the Carey creek put-in by mid day to grab one of the campsites at the put in, get the boats set up and rigged and go through the permit process (request campsites, informational talk etc). It was a hairy bumpy drive the last 36 miles along a narrow dusty road to the put-in where the road literally ended.  It felt like you were driving to the edge of the known lands.  The weather was hot so we slept outside with no tents to make it easier to get going in the morning.  

Day 3/River Day 1 (Monday) 

Launch day!

Along the way we stopped at some native rock paintings 

Our camp site for day 1. Small but nice  the only downside was that just upriver from our camp was a dead horse in the river (with a bridle on) and it couldn’t have been more than a few days old but it was starting to smell a little if the wind was blowing down river  

Our first major trip of the summer was a 6-day/5-night rafting trip on the wild and scenic section of the John Day River.  This is a 70 mile stretch with a put in a Clarno and a take-out at cottonwood.  Beautiful central Oregon desert canyon rafting trip.  2 years ago we did a shorter section upriver from here starting at Twickenham and taking out at Clarno which was our put in for this trip.  the colder than average variable weather spring we have been having this year continued to play out on this trip with warmer temps earlier in the trip dropping to cold and windy near the end of the trip with a torrential rain storm one night and a major wind-storm another night but thankfully our days were more pleasant.  

Like our raft trip to the Grand Ronde river last year we went with our friends the Lovejoy's and the Kerrs.  This year the Noah's ran the smaller 'super puma' raft, while Hunter, Jack and Nathan kayaked.  

This section of the John day only had one major set of rapids that were in the class 3 range.  We hit this set on the very first day but other than that its light class 2 and river float for the most part through a beautiful canyon with some interesting frontier history loaded with stories from early homesteaders, farmers, ranchers, and cattle rustlers.   This was the first longer trip with the new raft after its initial voyage in April on the lower Deschutes and first trip with the family.  

My good friend mark has been doing a high school boys Bible study since the start of the school year. He wanted to get all the boys out plus a couple of additional boys that will be starting high school next year (our Noah for example). We have been planning it for about a month.  In total we had 18 people. 12 boys and 6 adults. 

Mark and I would run gear rafts and our friend Justin who works for CRU at the college would run a raft full of kids and the older boys would run in a smaller raft on their own. (Jack and hunter both have familiarity running this one). 

Mark and Justin ran the programming for the weekend and I was camp cook!

We were a bit worried about the weather as it had just been snowing a little over a week earlier but we were blessed with good weather. Cool at night but nice spring days during the day.  

We did a 3 day run on the lower Deschutes leaving Friday and coming back Sunday. Boys had an absolute blast and it was amazing to see them bond as brothers in Christ.

Dads also had a great time hanging out and bonding with the boys as well. Food was great and always enjoyable to share meals together. Food pics- night 1 - big pot of chilli and second photo is a peach cobbler I did.  

We have been rafting as a family the last couple of years on borrowed equipment. This year we invested in our  own equipment. It’s hard to find something that everyone enjoys together and this is one of those things. With that you need a way to transport the raft so I set about building a removable platform for our trailer to carry the raft inflated.